Cross-border action 'needed to stem rising suicides'

An all-Ireland strategy must be drawn up to stem the rising numbers of people becoming victims of suicide and self-harm, Gerry Adams claimed today.

As former US President Bill Clinton prepared to launch a new programme by RehabCare in the Republic to prevent suicides among young people, Mr Adams insisted the problem needed to be addressed on a cross-border basis.

“The scale of suicide and self harm in Ireland is a national disaster requiring a national response,” the Sinn Féin leader insisted.

“However helpful initiatives like that being undertaken by Rehabcare are intended to be, they cannot meet the needs of the current situation.

“In 2003/2004 there were 577 reported suicides – more than the number of people killed in traffic accidents in the same period.”

Mr Adams was commenting after Northern Ireland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Nigel Williams called for more resources for mental health services for children and young people.

Suicide – particularly among young males – has become almost endemic in areas of Belfast, with at least 15 suicides in the west of the city in a three-month period this year and seven deaths in a single week.

North Belfast has fared no better, with 13 young men taking their lives in a fortnight at the start of 2004.

Mr Williams said there was a crisis in mental health services and called for resources to be made available to help stem the tragedy of suicide and self harm affecting many young people.

He said: “I am extremely concerned that the mental health of our children and young people is provided with the right resources at the right time.”

Mr Williams said he and his team had come across many voluntary and community groups providing valuable and much-needed services but there was a worrying lack of resources.

“Too many of the projects in the community which deal with the real distress felt by children and young people rely on short-term funding.

“Each project waits every year to see if funding is renewed, and the people working to support the mental health of our young people worry that the lifeline they are providing may be cut off,” he said.

Mr Adams claimed mental health services on both sides of the border were grossly underfunded.

The West Belfast MP argued: “I believe that the only sensible response to this deteriorating situation is for suicide prevention to become an area of co-operation under the Good Friday Agreement and that the ministers for responsibility in both parts of this island meet to agree, and promote a strategic approach to suicide prevention across the entire island.”